Playing one of the big multiplayer arcade cabinets like Simpsons or X-Men was the original couch co-op with whoever was at the arcade not playing pinball or pool.
I bought the 4-Player co-op X-Men arcade cabinet from Arcade1up and it’s been a blast playing it all the way through with my son.
Most awe inspiring: Morrowind
Most depth of interest: Final Fantasy X
Most emotional impact: The Last of Us
Bloody scenes? The whole game is made up of bloody scenes unless you’re intentionally avoiding doing the finishers. And even then it’s just less so.
It’s on sale on PSN. I might actually pick it up now.
The NES.
I remember a bunch of nonsensical or just plain frustrating games where you’re lucky to get past level 1. It was fun as a kid when I was just screwing around. But SNES and Genesis felt like the beginning of the expectation that you play through the game or at least take them seriously.
Pokemon Master Trainer
My question for them was when they say it still holds up, which Xbox are they playing it on. Because playing it on the the Xbox One or Series cuts the load times down to almost nothing. If they’re playing on the OG, then they are still experiencing the ungodly load times.
It was one of a handful of games that made the original Xbox worth having and one of my favorite games of all time (my other favorite being on the PS2). But I wouldn’t want to replay it on that console.
Oblivion has to be the absolute worst implementation of “enemies level up as you do” that I’ve ever played.
Get rid of that and make the characters look halfway normal, and I’d be stoked.
I love MW on Xbox (wait, original Xbox or a newer Xbox?) for multiple reasons. It’s on a console already hooked up to my TV (ie convenience). It supports a controller without any extra setup. You can use something like JoyToKey, but you have to set it up just right. It supports omnidirectional movement. Even if you set up your controller on PC, it still only supports 8 directions. The Dark Brotherhood doesn’t come after you until level 5.
I don’t use mods, so there’s really downside.
Final Fantasy X is tied as my favorite game of all time. Funny enough, the game it’s tied with came out on Xbox.
Worth mentioning:
Final Fantasy XII
Kingdom Hearts I & II
Ratchet & Clank (all)
Tony Hawk’s Underground
Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits
Burnout 3: Takedown
Rock Band
NFL Street
Amplitude
X-Men Legends
For the record, I was also immensely disappointed in XV. However I loved XVI. The ability cool downs in particular felt very ATB-like to me and I loved the customization. The story is very good and one of my favorites from storytelling perspective (in other words, HOW the story is told).
I also really liked the combat and exploration of XII. And the Zodiac version makes it even better.
I thought XIII had some of the best moments in the series.
XIII-2 perfected the gameplay from XIII and made storytelling and exploration “fun”
XIII: LR is very experimental and has some of my favorite action-based combat in the series.
World of Final Fantasy is a lot of fun if you want turn based monster capturing.
Stranger of Paradise is a blast. My only issue with it is that you can’t really overpower by leveling up. I hit a hard wall with a boss and the only way through is “get good”.
I didn’t get much into Type-O but I keep meaning to.
Theatrhythm exists. I love it, but it’s also it’s own thing entirely.
I love the US show and could not get into the UK show at all.
They look more animated. Like they move more both in their actual movements but also they seem more squishy. It probably doesn’t help that their models are made older in this one. It’s a bit off-putting, but only a bit.
I never got around to playing that one. I’ll have to put it on my list to get around to. But after watching a video, it’s definitely more action than the games I was listing. The PS1 is really an endless supply of quality games. Castlevania Symphony of the Night would another great action RPG which is even more on the action side compared to Alundra.
No Man’s Sky was my favorite experience on the original PSVR and I know it runs on the PSVR2 as well.
But have you considered FFVIII, the best of the PS1 RPGs?
I’ve got Hydro Thunder still. I literally played it like a couple weeks ago. When I was a kid I would use the GameShark to unlock all of the boats and tracks.
I don’t know that I ever made it past the first mission of the second city in Driver 2. I remember getting into that baseball field in free-roam though. Cops and Robbers was a hell of a multiplayer game too.
Worms Armageddon was way more difficult than it had any right being. I remember their challenges being nearly impossible. Like shoot a rocket through a pinhole using the wind.
So many RPGs. A few of my favorites.
Final Fantasy VIII - It may be the best looking game on the PS1, and my personal favorite. Unique leveling.
Arc the Lad III - The whole collection is worth it. But the third game had a streamlined polish that is rarely appreciated over the second game of the series.
Parasite Eve - Unique gameplay and weapon upgrading (GUNS). Very adult oriented.
Jade Cocoon - Monster capturing and MERGING. This creates completely new monsters with new stats and appearances. Infinite possibilities.
Honorable mentions: I played these a bit, but never enough to give a full endorsement. But still they are popular picks.
Azure Dreams - Rogue-Lite grid movement monster capture dungeon exploring.
Legend of Dragoon - Timing emphasized attacks. Bad translations.
Yeah, I guess he’s really transphobic and every time someone reaches out to talk about Earthworm Jim, he gets really weird and political.
I don’t like the idea of a game that can’t be played long after the servers have gone down.
But I’m glad that it can still be traded or sold after purchase unlike what Xbox tried to do.